UnionFAQs

Get Indie?

Unions aren't just for huge workplaces. While unions might sound like a
logical fit for large companies (say, ones where a multibillionaire boss you've
never met can fire you while talking about how you haven't realized your "full
potential"), even smaller workplaces can benefit enormously from being
organized. In fact, in our experiences small studios can sometimes be even
more abusive, and more prone (wittingly or unwittingly) to violating your
rights and boundaries as a worker. Small studio owners will often claim "we're
all in this together," but they're the ones controlling your salary and the ones
who stand to benefit from the company's successes — not to mention the ones who
can fire you when things go wrong (or if they decide they don't like you).
Again, organizing with your coworkers can help give you leverage against these
kinds of abuses.

Another way of looking at it is that organizing can simply help better reflect
who's actually doing the work at your job. Even if small business owners may
wear many hats or work alongside you, they usually have disproportionate
decision-making power or the ability to veto whatever they choose, because
they're the boss. If game development really is a team effort, why shouldn't
we be guaranteed a hand in steering the ship?

Unionizing now also means you'll be prepared in case of a change of management,
whatever the reason for it. It's the owners who decide when to sell the
studio, and they're the ones who get to cash in on all the work that was put
into it when it gets bought out. When that happens, usually all you get as a
worker is a change of bosses. Notoriously, Notch sold Mojang to Microsoft for
$2.5 billion and became enormously wealthy for it, while his employees received
nothing. (Microsoft would later offer a comparatively tiny $300,000 — that's a
whole $0.0003 billion, folks — incentive to workers, but only if they agreed to
remain Microsoft employees for another six months.)

News of the sale changed things at Mojang. Some felt betrayed by Markus's
decision. Morale plummeted. "People felt like the world was coming to an
end." (Source)

There are many more untold stories in the indie scene of folks who join a small
startup and accept to be paid less than they're worth because they really
believe in the project — only to receive nothing after the game makes it big and
the owners sell out for millions.

If your small studio boss claims to be sympathetic to unions: great! As a
worker, you're well-positioned to help them put their money where their mouth
is. But be warned that their sympathy might evaporate if you make it clear that
you want to unionize your own "scrappy" little indie studio rather than some
other company a hundred times bigger than you. Ultimately, owners stand to lose
power and money if their studio unionizes, which — go figure — makes it a hard
sell for a lot of them when it comes down to brass tacks. It's in these
moments that it becomes clear just how shallow the "we're all friends here"
mantra really is. By bargaining collectively, you are forcing your employer to
reckon with the realities of working together: the boundaries you want to ensure
are in place, the rights you want to assert, the conditions you want to improve.
These are all topics that tend to be difficult to broach on your own when
there's an unacknowledged power dynamic.

"By fabricating the illusion of employer as friend, the employed is denied the
opportunity to protest, argue, fight, be adversarial and demand more of their
working conditions."

If your boss really really means it when they say
they're sympathetic and want everyone to be equal, why not push for collective
ownership? Transitioning to a cooperative model is a great way to ensure
everyone at a company benefits from their successes and hard work. And if you're
thinking of starting a new studio yourself, forming a worker cooperative is a
great way to bake in those values right from the start.